Tory MP who touted 15-minute city conspiracy in Parliament claims cycling routes have turned city into a "ghost town"

Yep.  Culture change of course, but in many places (the urban places where most of us live) it's still quite possible with a slight change (maybe cycle - add some panniers, and maybe go twice every week instead of once).

Apparently the entire population of Utrecht (368000) can reach all necessary amenities by bike within 15 minutes, and most can within 10 minutes.  Now, that's a reasonably large place, and quite dense also.  The bulk of the UK populace is urban however.

More informative preaching here (for the "but that would be taking us back to the stone age!" worriers).

Doncaster has a long history of corruption.  Don't expect anything to change anytime soon.

perce wrote:

Is that the chairperson and treasurer of the Evil Cycling Lobby in that photo?

Could be, but don't we pick one randomly at each meeting to be extra evil?

I think we're trying to take on board some of the Energy Vampire Council's tactics to foil anyone trying to sabotage the meetings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ThLeM1Bu9k

I've been in meetings like that.

And no one wants to stay longer than they have to if the environment is unpleasant ie; full of vehicle traffic.

I think this guy wants quiet roads on the way in to town and no traffic when you get there, free parking right outside the door of every business, and for it to be a nice place to hang out in as well. And possibly free refills at the petrol station?

Pub bike wrote:

If it is anything like where I live it is a ghost town because:

- the rise of online shopping means many people have no reason to go there

- the roads are choked with gridlocked cars and just crossing the road to get to the shop on the other side of the high street is either an exercise in extreme patience using crossings overwhelmingly biased against pedestrians or a daring escapade offering way too much risk and excitement

In other words it has nothing to do with cyclists or cycling infrastructure.

Just so.

Toryspiv and their familiars have been turning Britain into a failed State for decades now, begining with The Thatcher Thing's promotion of parasitical financial capitalism over the production of real goods and services. Privatisation of public servics and the off-shoring of manufacturing facilities (with the resultant loss of jobs, careers and other traditional means of distributing income) has reduced a large swathe of the population to penury. Degradation of towns and cities was an inevitable consequence.

The rabid individualism promoted by Toryspiv and their neoliberal economics has, amongst other ills, promoted the car as an emblem of "freedom" and independence. In reality they are major polluters and drains on personal wealth .... but useful for isolating people from each other and setting them against "the others" - not just cyclists and pedestrians but other car drivers too.

Isolated wee ciphers in their tin boxes, distracted by road wars and car one-upmanship from the continual robberies of everyone by Toryspiv and pals.

The so-called "Conservative and Unionist Pary" have in fact become the exact opposite. Britain is far from unified and conditions of life are destroyed continuously in favour of greater "opportunities" for some "entrepreneur" to extract vast wealth from trashing anything and everything, from town centres to rivers to whole communities of people.

************

All the little pretend-improvements such as cycle paths are drastically inadequate tokens created like badly-painted scenery in a third rate theatre of the absurd. In a proper nation, constructed and run for actual citizens rather than subjects or serfs, we wouldn't need such drossy new pretend-improvements such as "cycing infrastructure", as the roads would be maintained for all, including the removal of infestations of killer cars driven by the mad denizens of the Toryspiv Hobbesian State of Nature.

Yeah, designers of shopping malls are missing a trick or two here - they need to clear out the throngs of pedestrians clogging up the arcades and walkways to make way for the introduction of vehicular traffic along the shop frontages. That's what people want. I'm astonished nobody has noticed this before.

(Sorry, posted this in the wrong place earlier!)

Sriracha wrote:

Yeah, designers of shopping malls are missing a trick or two here - they need to clear out the throngs of pedestrians clogging up the arcades and walkways to make way for the introduction of vehicular traffic along the shop frontages. That's what people want. I'm astonished nobody has noticed this before. (Sorry, posted this in the wrong place earlier!)

Or, how about we move the shops into the multi-storey car parks? Little pop-up food stalls every other parking bay.

hawkinspeter wrote:

Or, how about we move the shops into the multi-storey car parks? Little pop-up food stalls every other parking bay.

Ooh, I can see a synergy here! Perhaps we could even have a these cycling round the inside of a roundabout with cars travelling on the outside while purchasing wares?

After all, other places have floating markets...

While he's undoubtedly an idiot, he did target, specifically, badly designed and built cycle infrastructure. Which is probably fair. Lots of it is put in as a massive compromise to protect drivists and so it's not usable or at least severely limited.
 

I'm in cheltenham and am frustrated by the amount the county council are spending - mostly as we seem to be getting such rubbish value for money. They're spending a lot. But so badly.
 

How do we get NAO to do some kind of investigation into the quality of cycle infrastructure getting built nationally? There is quite a lot of money being spent (reduced, granted) but we're not seeing much good quality for it. 

yeah there is that.  No mention of that "other" traffic though - the reason a lot of the funding gets spend badly (everywhere) is partly due to it being designed by non-users & partly (I reckon) because it's often done half heartedly to tick a few boxes & not upset the vehicle users too much (I am one ofthose too).

I've yet to see a cycle lane, however badly designed actually shut down a city centre though....

Clem Fandango wrote:

yeah there is that.  No mention of that "other" traffic though - the reason a lot of the funding gets spend badly (everywhere) is partly due to it being designed by non-users & partly (I reckon) because it's often done half heartedly to tick a few boxes & not upset the vehicle users too much (I am one ofthose too).

If your problem is "crap cycle infra" then the answer is not "no cycle infra" - it's "proper cycle infra".  That is connected, goes where people want to go fairly directly, where there's secure parking at destinations, is convenient, safe (in several ways) and (if you would like to encourage more than say 5% share of trips by bike) allows for social cycling - just like walking, driving, taking the bus or train etc..

Often these schemes are hamstrung at the outset.  So there will be a condition that effectively nothing which reduces motor vehicle capacity will go ahead.  It's aiming below the target - at the beginning of an often protracted process which itself often sees further cuts and compromises etc.

Is the scheme too cheap, too limited?  It's not just wasting money, but making further change harder.  If not convenient current cyclists won't bother and if not "safe" and convenient few new cyclists will be tempted.  Then everyone will say "see - we built it and they didn't come".

The elephant in the room of course is that "attractiveness" and "convenience" are relative.  At some point to shift mode use (and further improve cycling conditions) for some trips driving needs to become less convenient.